The present disclosure relates to an image management server, an image display apparatus, an image provision method, an image acquisition method, a program, and an image management system.
In recent years, research has been in progress on the techniques for digitizing images of microscopically observed samples so as to display the digitized sample images on a suitable display device for observation.
Where digitized sample images are stored for the moment in a server on a network so that the stored images may later be viewed through retrieval from the server, it is possible to promote the development of so-called telepathology, a practice whereby a medical doctor at a remote location can render pathological diagnoses by viewing the sample images via the network.
A system may thus be structured by connecting on the network the server that holds digitized sample images with client devices each used to view the images from the server. For such a system, enhanced response performance is important for increasing the convenience of the user.
JP-T-2006-519443 (called Patent Document 1 hereunder) discloses a technique that attempts to boost response performance by caching image data and authentication information.